The Yamina party is preparing for elections in earnest, and is focusing especially on maintaining the strength polls show it has gained in recent weeks, according to a report in Yisrael Hayom.
The party has yet to set up an official campaign headquarters, and it may also still decide to change its name, but its basic plan of action as well as the direction in which it is concentrating its efforts are becoming increasingly clear.
If – or rather, when – elections are finally announced, Bennett, Shaked, Smotrich, and Kahane will pull out all the stops to present themselves as a viable alternative to the Likud party, which polls show is losing strength primarily to Yamina. They do not intend to launch a personal campaign against Netanyahu, as his loyal voter base will vote for him regardless. In general, they will try not to talk about “Yes to Bibi” or “No to Bibi.” From their vantage point, taking that route will only interfere with getting the message of their choice across to voters.
Instead, they will present their party in a new light – as the choice of energetic, younger right-wing voters, people who want to see things get done, people from the entire national-political spectrum. They are seeking to brand Yamina as inclusive, not a star-studded cast of prominent people, apparently having learned from the brief “New Right” episode when Bennett and Shaked attempted to establish a party populated by big names and experienced disaster in the national elections.
Bennett even plans to avoid talking about attorney-general Avichai Mandelblit and Netanyahu’s ongoing trial on corruption charges, according to the Yisrael Hayom report. He hasn’t changed his opinion on seeing Netanyahu as the victim of a witch hunt, but he apparently understands that if the focus of the coming elections is on the corruption trials, Netanyahu will be the one to gain, not he. Therefore, instead of allowing himself to be dragged into debating on turf that’s familiar and comfortable for the Prime Minister, Bennett will be relentlessly addressing issues that, in his opinion, are the ones that truly concern the majority of people.
Bennett also intends to present a “Hundred-Day Plan,” a step that will show his party as confident in being able to genuinely lead the country. He has already been working on this for weeks, along with a team of staffers, determined to portray himself as someone who is ready to hit the ground running right after elections – not someone who is just seeking the top spot. Bennett will present a long list of proposals, many of them designed to exploit the coronavirus crisis and turn it into a unique political opportunity for a man who has long been waiting for his break.